4 replies to this topic

[bonesiii]

Now that DesignByMe has ended, I'm curious how many BZPers used it and how yall'd rate it.

Myself, I used it only once near the end, because I knew it would end and figured I should while I could. Despite the limited selection of bricks/colors I am hugely satisfied with my custom set, and really enjoyed the quality packaging too.

Many of the pieces I got were new, from after I stopped buying LEGO sets due to lack of room, so I was very pleased to be able to get my hands on large numbers of them without resorting to Pick-A-Brick or buying a lot of unwanted bricks along with them in standard sets. (And I do plan to possibly use Pick-A-Brick now.)

I thought it rather strange and counterproductive that after I told them not to send instructions, to save paper, they included this huge-o letter "apologizing" for not being able to send instructions, plus a huge list of bricks with color pics of each one... defeating the point. Why not just one sheet summarizing my choices and listing the names of the bricks, with perhaps a URL to go online to see the pics? Or at least they could have offered that as an option. But no big deal.

It also took far longer than the supposed 3-8 business days to ship, but that's perhaps because I ordered in the final days and maybe a lot of others did too, so they probably had a backlog.

I'm not sure if I would use it again if they brought it back, but I would try to. I must admit that Pick-A-Brick makes it a little superfluous, but convenient. And I would definately be more likely to use it if they offered a better selection of bricks/colors. The new "standard LDD mode" selection is a good example of what I'd prefer, but of course I understand financial reasons this isn't practical.

Edited by bonesiii, Feb 08 2012 - 12:39 PM.

[Damaracx 7.0]

It was great the service, the bricks, LEGO really should bring it back.

[Aanchir: Rachira of Time]

I answered No, Good, and Probably Not. Design byME was a good concept, and I think the main problems were logistical issues that drove up the price-- for instance, the expense of hand-picking the parts both drove up the price and limited the parts palette, and the fact that orders had to be on-demand rather than mass-produced drove up the price even further (especially considering the custom box and instructions). And of course the box and instruction booklet were really the only reasons to use the service since every Design byME part was available on the online Pick-A-Brick service for far cheaper.

To clarify, each part on a Design byME model cost 25% more than it cost through Pick-A-Brick, and on top of that there was a flat rate of $10 added to all Design byME models. The instructions, from what I've heard, were not much better than the auto-generated instructions on LEGO Digital Designer, which you would have used to build the model anyway, and those instructions are mediocre, without nearly the same thoughtful design as official sets' building instructions.

The main asset of Design byME, as I saw it, is that it made a great gift, since it packages one of your MOCs as if it were a set. They certainly went out of their way to advertise it for this purpose every time a holiday approached. But for a LEGO fan's personal use, Pick-A-Brick tended to be more practical. I call the service good because it was an ambitious and respectable concept that simply didn't pan out too well in practice. Hence why if it returned I probably wouldn't make any purchases through it-- there is simply no way it could be made more economical than Pick-A-Brick given the additional complexity the Design byME service has by default.

[Lyichir]

I answered No, Good, and Probably Not. Design byME was a good concept, and I think the main problems were logistical issues that drove up the price-- for instance, the expense of hand-picking the parts both drove up the price and limited the parts palette, and the fact that orders had to be on-demand rather than mass-produced drove up the price even further (especially considering the custom box and instructions). And of course the box and instruction booklet were really the only reasons to use the service since every Design byME part was available on the online Pick-A-Brick service for far cheaper.

To clarify, each part on a Design byME model cost 25% more than it cost through Pick-A-Brick, and on top of that there was a flat rate of $10 added to all Design byME models. The instructions, from what I've heard, were not much better than the auto-generated instructions on LEGO Digital Designer, which you would have used to build the model anyway, and those instructions are mediocre, without nearly the same thoughtful design as official sets' building instructions.

The main asset of Design byME, as I saw it, is that it made a great gift, since it packages one of your MOCs as if it were a set. They certainly went out of their way to advertise it for this purpose every time a holiday approached. But for a LEGO fan's personal use, Pick-A-Brick tended to be more practical. I call the service good because it was an ambitious and respectable concept that simply didn't pan out too well in practice. Hence why if it returned I probably wouldn't make any purchases through it-- there is simply no way it could be made more economical than Pick-A-Brick given the additional complexity the Design byME service has by default.

Technically, Aanch, you did use the Design by Me service once, even though you didn't order anything. Didn't you upload those Blacktron III MOCs to the database in case anyone wished to purchase them?

I agree with Aanchir's post, though. While Design by Me was a nifty idea, it wasn't cost-efficient, and there were no real ways it could be made so.

[bonesiii]

Technically, Aanch, you did use the Design by Me service once, even though you didn't order anything. Didn't you upload those Blacktron III MOCs to the database in case anyone wished to purchase them?

I mean use as in order a set by mail. What you're referring to is simply uploading an LDD model to the online gallery, a feature that is still offered in modified form (if I saw correctly), and is now not connected to DesignByMe. So I would consider that a use of LDD, not DesignByMe per se.

Edited by bonesiii, Feb 11 2012 - 10:44 AM.